Aspirin-induced long non-coding RNA suppresses colon cancer growth

BACKGROUND: To study the effect of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNA) on aspirin-treated colon cancer cells. METHODS: To study the changes of lncRNA in aspirin-treated colon cells by microarray analysis, real-time quantitative PCR (qPCR) was used to verify the expression of selected lncRNA and mRNA. The effects of aspirin on the proliferation and metastasis of the siRNA transfected cells and control colon cancer cells were detected by Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK-8) and Transwell experiments. Bioinformatics tools were employed to analyze the potential function of lncRNA. RESULTS: Compared with the control group, aspirin inhibited the proliferation and metastasis of colon cancer cells. Microarray analysis showed that a total of 10,568 lncRNAs and 22,126 mRNAs were noticeably expressed in the aspirin-treated group (≥1.5-fold, P<0.05). The qPCR results showed that lncRNA and mRNA expressions were consistent with microarray analysis. The analysis of the co-expression network profiles of 58 lncRNA and 101 mRNA differential genes showed a total of 158 nodes and 791 connections. Analysis of Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways revealed that a variety of lncRNAs (NEAT1, LOC152578) were involved in the inhibition mechanism of aspirin in colon cancer. CONCLUSIONS: lncRNA NEAT1 and LOC152578 are involved in the inhibition of tumor cell growth and metastasis by aspirin. The results of these analyses will help us further understand the mechanism of action of aspirin and the roles of lncRNAs in the prevention and treatment of colon cancer.